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Talk:Close to Me (Season 13)/@comment-3575890-20140319204707
If I'm going to be completely honest, I am getting really agitated with this increasing sensation of feeling that I have to walk on eggshells in how I vocalize my opinions about Zaya/Zig in order to prevent a fullblown ship war. I '''like '''debates. I do not ever think they are unhealthy or unnecessary - in fact, quite the opposite. When they're civilized and emotions aren't high, they promote diversity, innovativeness, and riveting discussion. But on this board, it seems we can't ever have a healthy debate going on for long without someone viewing it as an antagonistic fight or initiation to start a ship war - which is never what debating is about - taking personal offence on the basis of someone disagreeing with their opinion or someone vocalizing a negative opinion about their favorite that doesn't in any way reflect on THEM, or in fewer words, full out anarchy ensuing and that is an enormous detriment to this board. Lack of debate is ultimately what gradually spurns independent thought and promotes 'group think' and 'hive-mind' mentalities that do no favors to any community. Debates are NOT a negative thing - or at least they do not need to be, and a lot can be learned from them. Back when I was stuck with cyber classes, I used to frequent a messageboard that had debates going on 24/7. In fact, that messageboard had a whole branch for only debate threads dedicated to controversial subjects that naturally had heated discussion going on through them all the time. Do you know what would often happen in these threads? Heated, passionate, ''civilized ''discussions. There were the occasional snags and hiccups, but any personal issues that would arise were instantly worked out. Guess what? There was significantly less dissonance and tension on that board than ever on here. So as long as things remained civil, and they always did, debates were greatly encouraged and a thing of a norm on this board. The longer a single debate went on for, the more increasingly receptive and open to opposing opinions and views people became. My opinions were rarely ever swayed in these discussions, but I certainly gained brand new perspectives and insights that I did not have before. It was fun. It was cathartic. It was enlightening. It was liberating. (not to mention my major saving grace from the boredom of my cyber classes - and yes, before you ask, I still got my work done and passed my classes lmao) Nobody ever felt like they needed to censor/silence their opinions or claimed being bullied (for lack of a better term) into it. Nobody ever felt skeptic to challange others' opinions and views and nobody took offence when someone did. Nobody ever felt that they were being coerced into changing their views. Discussions never came to a definitive end. When people would tire of it, they'd bow out, new people would swarm in and the discussion would continue to flow and that is because people recognized that the objective of a messsageboard debate is not to convert your counterpart to your point of view, but to enrich communication and critical thinking. In the process of all of this, nobody was ever at each other's throats to the magnitude that I've seen people on here sometimes. In fact, people would shoot each other friendly messages afterwards. But then there's this board where people vye to discourage any discussions of differences at all, and now even preface their rants and opinions with disclaimers.